A Day of Skating and Shopping

Man, I had a great day yesterday! First, I went to Van Saun Park for ice skating. Yep, you heard me, ice skating at Van Saun Park! The new Bergen County Winter Wonderland at Van Saun Park in Paramus is really a great place for the whole family to go to! In addition to the ice skating rink, there's also a smaller rink for younger children, a North Pole Workshop activity center consisting of a small movie theater and tables for coloring and other fun activities, a beer garden, and food and drink stands. Hey, the ice rink may not be like Central Park or Bryant Park in New York City, but it's still lots of fun! Bergen County really did a nice job with this Winter Wonderland event! I give them a lot of kudos! They should've thought about this a LONG time ago! But still, I loved it! The best part about the Winter Wonderland event is that the carousel and train ride stay open longer in the season and operate at night! However, the zoo operates on its normal hours from 10 AM to 4 PM. You just have to pay $15.69 to access all of the winter wonderland attractions! They give you this little orange wristband and you can ride the train and carousel as many times as you want! And you can go to the other attractions they have as well! If you want to find out more about the Winter Wonderland event, go to, http://www.bergencountywinterwonderland.com/ . I also like the little Christmas tree forest where it has all the different Christmas trees with the boroughs of Bergen County labeled on them. It looked so cute and beautiful!

So, after skating, I went to see the new stores at Closter Plaza. I must say, I was very impressed with all of these new stores! The surprising part about the new stores was that they added a Target. I never thought they would add a Target in Closter, New Jersey, but I guess the town wanted to make some money. Overall, I loved going to the Target there. I noticed that there were more self-checkout stands rather than regular checkouts with employees working the counters. I consider that convenient because it makes life a lot easier and the lines move quicker and quicker. The other new stores that were in Closter Plaza were HomeGoods, Whole Foods, Petco, and Kidville. Other stores and restaurants will be filled in soon. The stores looked very nice, clean, and modern! I also give the town of Closter some kudos too! Chipotle is one of the new restaurants that they put in the shopping center, and that was another shocker I discovered. I had no idea Closter would put a Chipotle as well. But of course, I love Rudy's Pizza since their food is awesome! Especially the pizza! Rudy's was renovated and I think they might've expanded it the last time I came here. It looked so beautiful! The unfortunate part is that the Dollar Tree in Closter will be closing sometime in mid-January 2017. But that's okay, I still have my Park Ridge location in town.  The movie theater is still undergoing renovations. Thankfully, it won't be that stupid Bowtie Cinemas anymore. Instead, it will become this Cinemex dine in movie theaters. Again, I'm not that interested because the theater is still pretty small and I like AMC Theaters and Regal Cinemas better. It was a great day full of fun, skating, and shopping! I had a blast!

Making Paramus A Better Place Again

Paramus, New Jersey; it may be a community in Bergen County full of shopping and entertainment close to New York City. Personally, I love shopping at all four malls which are Paramus Park, Bergen Mall, Garden State Plaza, and Fashion Center. They are great malls with a wide variety of stores and restaurants. I also like going to the AMC Theaters at the Garden State Plaza. That's always the best! But I have a feeling that some venues are missing to make Paramus a better community again. Sure, the borough may have added a new family fun entertainment venue called Humdingers, which has indoor batting cages, bowling alleys, and a big arcade. It may not be SportsWorld like when I went as a kid, but it still offers great entertainment for the entire family. And Van Saun Park has also added an outdoor ice rink and this entire "winter wonderland" for the children from November to January. In addition, the carousel and train runs longer. I believe that is wonderful; however, I feel that is not enough to make Paramus a great community again.

I believe that Paramus Park should add a Regal Cinemas because to help boost popularity of the mall. For the past three years (will be four in 2017), the management at Paramus Park approved to build a movie theater in the mall and have been planning it. Sadly, the project has been delayed for quite a while. When I looked at the Regal Cinemas website, I noticed that it said a location will be opening at Paramus Park with 10 theaters inside in 2018. I was thinking, "When will this ever open?" I love AMC Theaters and Regal Cinemas because they're modern and clean looking theaters as compared to those old crappy cinemas like Bowtie Cinemas. I feel like those old crappy theaters are so out of date and that AMC and Regal are examples of today's movie theaters. In general, Paramus used to have three movie theater complexes. One was Route 4 and two were on Route 17. I feel like AMC at Garden State Plaza as the only movie theater complex in the entire borough of Paramus isn't enough to make Paramus a better community. Regal should be built at Paramus Park so that AMC won't be alone to make Paramus great again. Another benefit that Regal Cinemas in Paramus Park will have is that people won't have to drive up all the way to Nanuet Mall, they can just come to Paramus. It's so convenient!

While adding another movie theater complex is beneficial to the borough of Paramus, I feel like that is still not enough to make the borough a better place. I believe that a Dave and Buster's should also be put into the borough of Paramus. There may be a location at Palisades Center mall, but if a Dave and Buster's comes to Paramus, it will be the first Dave and Buster's location in the entire state of New Jersey since there has never been a New Jersey location for Dave and Buster's. I love all their food and games there! Looks like Chuck E. Cheese's, Monster Mini Golf, and Humdinger's are going to have some company if this ever happens! Again, this would be convenient since people won't have to drive up all the way to Palisades Mall or New York City in Times Square, they can just come in between in Paramus for convenient measures. This will also boost up popularity and entertainment. If the borough can stop procrastinating and get these projects off the ground, I'm sure that Paramus will be a better place again.

Xmas Party Time!

So, it was a typical Saturday for me. Go to the diner with my family for breakfast in the morning, chill at home, and then go out for lunch with my Dad at the ol' Saloon. Everything was fine until I realized that my college hockey game was cancelled due to bad weather and the fact that we did not have enough players to play. I mean it was me and seven other guys (including the goalie) and we were going to play against a hockey team from Long Island that had twenty-four skaters. My coach and captain did realize that we could not play a whole game with just eight players out there facing a twenty-four man hockey team. Seriously, we could've been slaughtered out there! We could have lost like maybe 20-0, or even worse. Did our team want to get slaughtered if we were short benched? Hell no! It was a good thing that they cancelled because it gave my other teammates who could not make it the opportunity to work on their commitment issues. It was a shame about the game cancellation, but I decided to do something special. I went to my other hockey team's Christmas party!

Now this other hockey team I play on is for children and adults with special needs. This team is called the Daredevils. It's an awesome team! We get to go on so many tournament trips, play games both on the road and at home, and we have great events that we go to every year! It is such an awesome feeling! I think it's a great opportunity for special needs individuals to play sports such as hockey because it helps them make new friends and have fun playing a sport that they really enjoy playing. And hockey, in my opinion, is an awesome sport! So, back to the story. I decided to surprise my teammates by going to the team Christmas party. They had no idea that I would be coming since they thought I was at the college hockey game. But when I walked in that room and yelled, "SURPRISE!", boy were they surprised! A lot of them said, "Why are you here? I thought you were at your college hockey game!" But I did explain to them that my hockey game was cancelled due to weather and the low amount of players we had. They understood and I happily joined the party! I had a great time with my teammates! There was outstanding food, great games to play, and Santa Claus himself made an appearance. I got some presents from him since I've been a good boy. I got a Daredevils T-shirt with some goodies! I even got a puck! Everyone had a ball! And you know something, I'd rather spend the holiday spirit with my teammates, friends, and family than just sitting alone and bored in my house after realizing that my college hockey game got cancelled. Christmas is a time for being with your friends and family and giving them the spirit of love, joy, giving, and thanks. On that note, I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2017! God bless.

Hello Winter Break!

Ah, winter break! It's such a wonderful feeling when school lets out and all of the students are filled with Christmas spirit and joy! No more school work until January so everyone can spend time with their friends and family over the holidays. It really does help students lay off the stress. You can just hear the sigh of relief that the semester or first half of the school year is over and that it is time to be in the Christmas spirit mood. Personally, I love winter break! There's so much to do! I just put away all my school books and backpack and just relax. I just enjoy listening to Christmas music, eating candy canes, and having a nice cup of hot cocoa right by the fireplace. It makes me feel all warm and cozy inside! Whether it is eating Christmas dinner with my family or hanging out with my friends at the mall, my winter breaks have been enjoyable every year. I remember when I was a kid, I used to play with my model train sets that my father set up during Christmas time. They were so cool! I still own them today and most of them are in great condition! I have a Southern Pacific model, some Santa Fe models, some Conrail models, an old Lionel Steam Locomotive, and of course, Thomas the Tank Engine! It has been years since the last time I have played with them, but they still work really well!

One of my Conrail model trains

Another great part about the holidays is going to the mall. I know I see a lot of people shopping for Christmas gifts and the children telling Santa Claus what they want on their Christmas list. I remember I asked Santa for many things on my Christmas lists several times as a child. It may have been long lists, but I still managed to be a good boy all those years. Yep, winter break has always treated me well. Christmas time is always the best! But be sure to be a good boy or girl for Christmas this year, otherwise, you'll get coal in your stocking. And trust me, nobody loves coal. It's so disgusting! Like they say in Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, "Be good for goodness sake!" Other than that, happy holidays everybody! Enjoy winter break while it lasts!